Best Ever Albums

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 21:44:26 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 06/20/2026 01:44

imacgill wrote:

FYI...The Strokes album has been delayed to July 24th https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/the-strokes/the-strokes-new-album-is-delayed

However, based on the two preview tracks they have released for the album,I am in no rush to listen to it..

Dang, that sucks — that's the same week as the new Robyn Hitchcock album! Bastards! 😠

Still, I guess it's not surprising... Julian Casablancas is 47 now, and when you get older it just takes longer for strokes to get the job done.

Anyway, no surprise drops today (or at least none that I'm interested in). There's an apparent screwup this week though, with the new LP from Soft Palms, In Echo — BEA member Davy added it here today (thanks, man!) with a release date of Sept. 16, but there it is on Bandcamp right now with all tracks available, saying it was released last week, with the "album release" today, whatever that means. I don't know what's going on there, but it's a fun little record, especially if you like upbeat post-punk bands with waifish-sounding female singers (i.e., if you're like me).

Soft Palms
In Echo (2026)

There's also a new LP that I hadn't noticed from Swim Deep called Hum, which I'm only seeing on Spotify and Soundcloud at the moment, but it's not bad — they're in the Belle & Sebastian, Go-Betweens, Beach Fossils kind of dreamy/jangly post-punk sort of mold, based on just a first impression at least.

Lastly, I neglected to mention the new album from a new-ish band, Chainlacing, entitled Messuage — because of course you can't just spell the word "message" correctly if you want to use it as an album title, that would just be absurd. I think this might be their debut LP; they're from Boston and they call themselves a "dungeon dream pop" band, which is pretty accurate, as it turns out — I didn't mention them earlier because the preview tracks were kind of, you know, just okay, but now that I'm hearing the whole thing, I'm a little more impressed. Not for fans of upbeat pop music, though — they're slowcore and a bit goth, maybe a lot goth on two or three tracks, but the vocals are mixed pretty low so if they're singing about demons or blood-drinking or whatever, you'll probably never know they're doing it. They actually remind me of Clan of Xymox a little bit, except the drums and/or drum machines are mixed lower, presumably to give them more shoegazer credibility.

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

imacgill — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 19:18:17 GMT

Author: imacgill

Posted: 06/19/2026 23:18

So... slim pickin's, right? Summer can often be a lull period for new releases, but next week we've got The Strokes, Muse, and The Butthole Surfers, among others, so maybe this is just a one-week thing.

FYI...The Strokes album has been delayed to July 24th https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/the-strokes/the-strokes-new-album-is-delayed

However, based on the two preview tracks they have released for the album,I am in no rush to listen to it..

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 01:02:20 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 06/19/2026 05:02

What June 19th, 2026 releases are coming out tomorrow for which YOU have a diabolical master plan in the final implementation stage that would allow you to hear them as soon as possible? (Or just stream them from the usual places, starting... right about now, actually?)

This week we've got a new Chris Stamey album called Modernism; it's mostly a covers album, but there are three originals on it, so that's something. No preview tracks, so I have no idea what it sounds like, but I'm sure it's fine. He doesn't make bad records, but I can't say I've ever been a huge fan or anything... There's also a new one from Daniel Lanois, Belladonna Nocturne, which carries on nicely from most of what he's done in recent years — jazzy, dreamy, pleasant, a few interesting moments, and as far as I can tell, all instrumentals. Very nice. And as if that wasn't enough, there's another new Pye Corner Audio (aka Martin Jenkins) album called More Songs About The Sun, which probably isn't something to get too excited about since he's quite prolific and most of his stuff sounds pretty much the same, really. (Not a bad thing, I hasten to add.) On this one he's collaborating with Andy Bell though, of Oasis and Ride fame, so maybe that will get people to check it out.

There are also three new albums this week from three different generations of UK popsters:

Haircut One Hundred, Boxing the Compass: They're claiming this is "the real follow-up to Pelican West!" except that in all likelihood nobody who's still alive remembers Pelican West. (I was alive when it came out, in fact I almost bought a copy, but that doesn't mean I remember it.) Based on their recent teaser singles, I'm not all that excited about this new one either, though I've been impressed with some of Nick Heyward's solo albums, starting with North of a Miracle — which is actually a really nice pop record.

Graham Coxon, Castle Park: I believe this is his 11th solo album, and it's definitely one of his better ones, though he still isn't much of a singer. This one sounds more like 60s-era Merseybeat than most of his solo records, though admittedly I haven't heard all of them. Personally, I might have preferred another Waeve album, since both of those so far have been really good, but I guess the guy's gotta follow his muse or whatever...

The Veils, Fragile World: They only announced this a couple of days ago and they've kept a lid on it with no preview tracks, but supposedly it's not quite as "quiet and introspective" as the last one (Asphodels), it's closer to the one before that, And Out Of The Void Came Love, which was still pretty quiet and introspective. I'm not going to give up on them because of this quiet-and-introspective thing, but I'm also not getting my hopes up, to be honest.

So... slim pickin's, right? Summer can often be a lull period for new releases, but next week we've got The Strokes, Muse, and The Butthole Surfers, among others, so maybe this is just a one-week thing.

Because Repo says he's on vacation, and because Olivia Rodrigo got everyone interested in The Cure again, my pick-of-the-week will just have to be The Foreign Resort's new album, Endurance. (You know, vacation, "foreign resort"... okay, it's not funny, but I had to try.)

The Foreign Resort
Endurance (2026)

In case you're unfamiliar with them, well, they're from Denmark and they sound like The Cure during their 1983-87 period. A lot. Not on every track, and they might be a little more coldwave-ish than The Cure were in general, and not super-gothy, but still... it takes me back, y'know? What can I say, I'm old and full of nostalgia.

Happy listening, everybody! 😄

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:43:50 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 06/12/2026 22:43

Cheddar wrote:

I'll highlight the new Jesse Welles album Masks Off, which I still need to add to the site once I rate it. He is the definitive folk voice of our time in my opinion, and he continues to blow me away with the music that he releases regularly in a stripped down, acoustic form on YouTube. I've been listening to Masks Off for most of the day and it is excellent! I'm not sure if I like more than Devil's Den or Middle from last year, but it's up there for sure. Early highlights for me are Red (one of my favorites of his for a while, honestly), Masks Off, and Siddhartha. I'm so glad we have a voice like his for this current generation.

Oh yeah, I like him! "The modern-day Woody Guthrie"... He's the guy who did the Join ICE song, too. �'�

If you have a Discogs account, you could probably do him an even bigger favor by consolidating the page with his "Jeh Sea Wells" albums with the page that has all his "Jesse Welles" albums, along with the page with all the albums he did as just "Welles." It's confusing, though arguably it's his own doing, using all those names... BEA doesn't have any of the Jeh Sea Wells stuff in the database either, but I just went ahead and made Jesse a member of "Welles" (that's how Discogs has it currently — it should be an alias, right? Those are basically solo albums).

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

Cheddar — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:08:40 GMT

Author: Cheddar

Posted: 06/12/2026 22:08

I'll highlight the new Jesse Welles album Masks Off, which I still need to add to the site once I rate it. He is the definitive folk voice of our time in my opinion, and he continues to blow me away with the music that he releases regularly in a stripped down, acoustic form on YouTube. I've been listening to Masks Off for most of the day and it is excellent! I'm not sure if I like more than Devil's Den or Middle from last year, but it's up there for sure. Early highlights for me are Red (one of my favorites of his for a while, honestly), Masks Off, and Siddhartha. I'm so glad we have a voice like his for this current generation.

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

Repo — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 14:12:36 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 06/12/2026 18:12

MadhattanJack wrote:

Repo wrote:

I clearly got nothing!

I hate to say it (again), but you're not alone — this isn't a good new-albums week at all.

As for this week's actual releases, obviously everyone is talking about the new Olivia Rodrigo album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, and the various references to The Cure that are on it, but let's face it, it doesn't really sound like The Cure at all, at least not in any meaningful way. (I don't dislike the preview tracks though, they're fine, but it's still basically girlpop.)

Link

This track is actually A LOT of fun! Love the Gary Numan/ New Wave vibe!

The duet with Robert Smith is decent too on first listen.

Olivia Rodrigo. She's just like us! �...

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 22:43:37 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 06/12/2026 02:43

Repo wrote:

I clearly got nothing!

I hate to say it (again), but you're not alone — this isn't a good new-albums week at all.

For me, it started with the screwed-up release of Swallowtail by She's Green, a very nice dreampop band from Minneapolis. They pre-announced it as an album called Swallowtail (Amazon link, sorry) with a release date of July 10, but then they put up a 4-track digital EP called Swallowtail earlier this week with the same release date (but all four tracks available), and now there's a separate Swallowtail album with 7 tracks showing on all the streaming services too with three of the EP's four tracks on it, so nobody knows which one to buy or whether or not you're going to end up with all 7 tracks if you buy "Swallowtail" now instead of waiting for July 10. I know it's stupid to care about things like this, but I just don't like to see it, at least not with bands I like. (That said, it's also not as good as their last record.)

As for this week's actual releases, obviously everyone is talking about the new Olivia Rodrigo album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, and the various references to The Cure that are on it, but let's face it, it doesn't really sound like The Cure at all, at least not in any meaningful way. (I don't dislike the preview tracks though, they're fine, but it's still basically girlpop.) And speaking of "sad," and bands who actually do sound sort of like The Cure, there's supposed to be a new Sad Lovers and Giants album called The Weight Of Forgotten Dreams tomorrow but... so far, it's vaporware, I'm not seeing preview tracks on any of the streamers, and it isn't even mentioned on their own website. I'll listen to it if and when it appears, but their last album (2018's Mission Creep) was... um, just okay. And for yet another disappointment, I forgot that Joan As Police Woman's debut album was called Real Life, so sure enough, her new album Real Life Evolution is just another one of those "reimagined" albums that so many people are doing these days. (I blame Taylor Swift for this, of course.) It's also not even close to being an improvement, if you ask me.

There's a new album from Yes (Aurora) that's supposed to be good because it's the first time they've had the same lineup for more than two albums, except that the only personnel change during the Fragile to Tales From Topographic Oceans three-album run involved drummers (i.e., Alan White replaced Bill Bruford). Drummers don't count, right? (I'm kidding...) Anyways, if they're playing that up, that tells me that maybe they're even less excited about this LP than I am.

Then there's the new album from Goose, a funky indie-pop act from Norwalk, CT, entitled Big Modern!. Goose are not to be confused with Goofy Geese, whose new album (as I mentioned earlier) was released last week, and neither are to be confused with the Brooklyn-based Geese, whose last LP is still the #1-ranked album of 2025 here on BEA. Still, I can't help but think Big Modern! might have had a real shot at that #1 slot if it had been released last year instead of this year, just by taking advantage of the brand-confusion.

That leaves just three albums I'm really interested in, and even then, none of them are really "up my alley."

Pussy Riot, CYKA: If I could be a member of any band in the world, it would be this one, and I'm not even female. Or Russian. I don't even like their music! Still, this is considered to be their debut full-length LP, so I'm definitely going to want to hear it, and you should too. (TBH though, it's not unlike their 2022 collabs-compilation, Matriarchy Now — this time, the single, if it can be called that, is called "Candy Dopamine" and the collaborator is Avenged Sevenfold.) Musically, it's electro-girlpunk with riffage, but that's just a minor detail in their case.
Klimt 1918, Àmor: These fellers are an Italian post-metal/shoegaze band, and while I've always liked them, this album sounds like it's going to be their best yet, and the production sound is fantastic. Interestingly, this is one of the few bands I like for whom the Wikipedia description of their musical style is almost completely accurate. It's their 7th album (assuming you don't count Sentimentale and jugend, both released on the same day in 2016, as one). Bellissimo!
MONO, Snowdrop: This is (Japanese) MONO's 13th (give or take) studio album, and their first with Brad Wood as producer, replacing the late Steve Albini (but still recording in Albini's Electrical Audio Studio in Chicago). They're billing it as a kind of tribute to Albini, though you probably wouldn't know that if they didn't tell you. Like most, if not all of MONO's albums, it's pretty much all-instrumental post-rock, with lots of dynamics and crescendoes and a general air of magnificence throughout. Steve would be proud, and rightly so.

I guess I couldn't really name a "pick-of-the-week" without having explained all that rigamarole first. If this thread is about what we're most interested to hear and not what we think is likely to be the best album, musically-speaking, then it has to be CYKA, even though I'm far more interested in it as a political statement than as music. But if we're putting politics aside, which I would completely understand, then it's Àmor, by a nose over Snowdrop, and even that's mostly just because Àmor has vocals (which are pretty decent in this case) and Snowdrop doesn't.

Next week — in fact, the next five weeks — don't look any better than this one did, but hopefully someone will come along and surprise us.

Good time to go on vacation! 😄

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

Repo — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 21:32:14 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 06/12/2026 01:32

I'm taking the Summer off! My kids & I are headed to Canada fairly soon. I'm hoping MJ (and perhaps Tap!) can keep the good ship afloat for the next couple of months.

I was toying with highlighting two Metal releases that r coming out tomorrow - Kemmis by Kemmis and Epoch Inhumane by Nuclear Tomb but neither are blowing me away.

Anyways, as always, feel free to highlight new releases that YOU r geeked about!!! I clearly got nothing! 🌻

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Sat, 6 Jun 2026 00:23:23 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 06/06/2026 04:23

Two surprise drops today in rock 'n' pop land — there's apparently a new album of children's music by Laura Marling called Laura Sings Raffi, and sure enough all the songs are Raffi covers. So I guess it's more of a "tribute album," actually. She has a nice voice. There, I said it.

There's also a new Osees album called Off Course, their 30th (I think), which is pretty good, I guess... their fans should like it well enough, though the cover art isn't great, and music-wise I don't think it's going to win them a lot of new ones. (Fans, that is.) I could be wrong! 🤔

Another one that might be worth a mention, which will be coming out tomorrow (June 6), is the new LP by Daily Worker called Sound Sickness. "Daily Worker" is the nom de plume of Harold "Whit" Williams, who used to play guitar in Cotton Mather, another one of my favorite power-pop bands from the 90s. There's only one preview track at the moment ("Anymore"), and it sounds like his usual Beatlesque bedroom pop, but that's not a bad thing and hopefully more will be available in the next hour or three, at which point I can confirm that it is, in fact, worth a mention. Even though I've just mentioned it already.

As for the previously-mentioned stuff, having now heard both albums in full I stand by my ranking of Deaf Star's Sunset Overdrive over the Overpass album — though some people might think I've passed over the Overpass album just because I like overdrive. It's true that I have an overdrive pedal (though I've been using the fuzzbox more lately), but at least I didn't pass over it during Passover, which was back in early April. I went ahead and added the Overpass album to my fully-annotated 2026 BEA year chart!!!, because it really does sound quite "epic," even though it's mostly just for Coldplay and U2 fans who are used to that sort of thing by now. Also, when I listened to it on Amazon Music a little while ago, the AI in charge of keeping me "engaged" started autoplaying The 1975 when it ended, and I could barely tell the difference with them, either.

Overpass
Elsewhere, Always (2026)

Finally, I liked the new Widowspeak album, Roses, more than I thought I would. I've sort of dismissed them in the past because they've consistently tagged themselves as "shoegaze" and "dreampop" when they're really not, they're more like heavily-reverberated Americana, sort of like what Mazzy Star and Cat Power used to do. Also, their guitar player is a little sloppy, which may be intentional, but I personally find it a bit distracting, and occasionally even grating. Nevertheless, it's a good record as it turns out, and I should have mentioned it up above. Another one, actually, is the self-titled debut LP by Bad Stuff, a band from Dallas who used to be members of True Widow, not to be confused with Widowspeak who are (or were), like, almost exactly the same despite being a totally different band who also have the word "widow" in their name. I would describe Bad Stuff as "electrogothabilly," so it's not really in my so-called wheelhouse, but it's good for what it is.

Good luck and happy listening, bruthas and sistas! 😄

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Thu, 4 Jun 2026 23:47:22 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 06/05/2026 03:47

Repo already mentioned two of the four big pop/rock releases this week — the other two are the new Modest Mouse LP, An Eraser And A Maze, which (based on the three preview tracks) sounds like Isaac Brock and the gang have put a fair amount of effort into it but aren't trying to change their formula all that much (which is probably good); and as Cheddar mentioned just now, the new Evanescence album, Sanctuary, which isn't bad either, at least if you like goth-metal. After all, they're probably the best goth-metal act operating today, not that I would really know... 🤔

In addition to those, there's supposedly a new one from (The) Dwarves called Jenkem, though I haven't seen it anywhere but on their own website, and another entry in the "Year Of..." series from Fucked Up entitled Grass Can Move Stones Part 2: Year of the Monkey. FU has certainly come a long way stylistically over the years, but they're still reasonably thrashy, despite each track being about 25 minutes long. And it's true, grass can move stones, it just takes a while.

In the "TV and movie stars who make records" department, there's new smoky-lounge material from Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra (Still Blooming: Night Blooms), not to be confused with Jeff Goldblum Near Death Experience who are considerably more... experimental (and free to download on Bandcamp, I might add). There's also an overly-dramatic (but somehow still sort-of interesting) blue-eyed soul/pop LP from Damian Lewis called Sweet Chaos. Ooh, hold me back!

Just as an aside, don't confuse Norwegian 70s-influenced indie-popsters Goofy Geese with the less-goofy US-based Geese, as I suspect they might like you to do. Goofy Geese have a new album out called I Don’t Feel Like Speaking Now, which I'm only mentioning because I think I might just like it more than the last Geese album that everyone else really liked a LOT.

Two more that were released earlier in the week but I felt deserve a mention:

Clockwork Animals: Fantastic Future Dream
This is a lo-fi guitar-based male-female duo from Liverpool who do shoegaze psychedelia. It's a 5-song debut EP, and I'm not sold on the vocals, but aside from that, probably worth keeping an eye on. (If you're me, at least.)

The Dreamtoday: We Won't Survive the Comet
I've checked out this band before and wasn't super-impressed (there's no Discogs page!), but they've improved their sound and their songwriting quite a lot since they started. They're a classic-shoegaze outfit from Massachussetts, whose defining aspect seems to be the visual of their one female member, Violet Nowak, who (pardon my obvious sexism here) can't even be called a "tambourine girl" because she doesn't play a tambourine — she mostly sings backup vocals while wearing a white dress, and is also the focal point of their music videos (again, always in the white dress). Don't misunderstand, I'm OK with the white dress; I just wish these guys would find someone who could take over the lead vocals on all their material while wearing it. The guy who sings most of their songs now, Nicky Russo, is... just okay. A better singer could really put this band in the stratosphere, or at least somewhere higher than they are now.

That leaves just two albums: First, this weeks' runner-up, Elsewhere, Always by a new band from Birmingham (UK, not Alabama) called Overpass. This appears to be a fairly high-energy Britrock band who sound like they're straight out of the 90s, reminiscent of first-name bands of that era like Travis, James, Keane, Gene, Ash, and possibly Moose (though "Moose" is more of a nickname, really). Or even Muse, who are like Moose but not spelled phonetically. So why call themselves "Overpass"? I suspect this will be their Achilles' heel. Even "Achilles" would have been a better name, if you ask me. Still, the album sounds like it could have hit potential, but maybe I'm just saying that because I was alive in the 90s and was quite fond of bands like this at the time.

And my pick-of-the-week:

Deaf Star
Sunset Overdrive (2026)

This is the debut LP by Deaf Star, an electrogaze solo act from... I'm not totally certain, actually! The guy's name is Ivan Zoloto, born in Petrozavodsk, Karelia (which is in Russia, about 100km from their border with Finland — not far from where the Russians keep most of their nuclear weapons, at least according to Google Earth). At some point he moved to San Francisco and recorded this album, but since then he's moved to Barcelona, and frankly I don't blame him. Electrogazers aren't really welcome in Russia or San Francisco these days because none of them seem to have much hair, whereas Barcelona is a really nice town, with fantastic cuisine and top-notch soccer teams on both the men's and women's sides. Albummaster is from Spain so I'll let him decide where to put him, but anyway, this album is a real mind-blowing experience — which is pretty impressive for a first try! Most people probably won't like it, and I didn't even want to like it myself, but I can't help but be impressed with what he's doing here. It's noisy, experimental, kinda avant-garde... but still shoegazey at heart. And that's what really matters!

Anyway, next week there's the big new LP from Joan as Police Woman, Real Life Evolution, and a new album from Yes called Aurora. (Apparently Steve Howe is still involved, so they haven't gone completely "generational"... yet. Steve's definitely showing his age a little bit though.)

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

Cheddar — Thu, 4 Jun 2026 22:08:14 GMT

Author: Cheddar

Posted: 06/05/2026 02:08

The new Evanescence and Vince Staples albums both have my attention.

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Thu, 4 Jun 2026 21:50:57 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 06/05/2026 01:50

Hayden wrote:

Paradise Metal (2026) by Π. Διον�...́σιος Ταμπάκης [P. Dionysios Tampakis]

Came out a few weeks ago now. Unlike anything else, swear—

I'd be curious as to what his pedalboard/amp setup is (it doesn't sound like he's got anything fancy), but that's a Cort KX707 EverTune 7-string guitar he's playing, or at least that's what's in all the photos. (I've always wanted a 7-string myself, actually.) The album's Bandcamp page is here, but I wouldn't call this "metal," or even "Byzantine" necessarily — it's basically Pontic Greek-Orthodox liturgical pieces and folk chants played on a $1,400 electric guitar instead of the usual bouzouki. Which is totally cool, don't get me wrong, but they don't even turn on the drum machine until track 7, and by track 9 the guitar is practically gone completely. Still, I kinda like it! This is a good way to bring "early music" to modern audiences (Tanya Donelly & Chris Brokaw did something similar with their The Undone is Done Again EP that was mentioned here back on April 18, only they used a digital-delay instead of a distortion pedal). I guess what it really needs is a Rick Rubin or Bob Rock behind the desk to put it over the top, metal-wise.

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

Hayden — Thu, 4 Jun 2026 18:38:18 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 06/04/2026 22:38

MadhattanJack wrote:

Paul McCartney (the real one), The Boys of Dungeon Lane
People in the music media (or what's left of it) are already saying this is his best album in years, at least as good as (if not better than) Chaos And Creation in the Backyard, Flaming Pie, or Flowers in the Dirt, and so on. Personally, I agree.

I haven't listened to a new McCartney album in... well, decades— but I'm going to give this one a go, I'm finding it more intriguing than usual—

As for today? Can't say I have to much to offer. My chart hasn't actually moved too much for almost an entire month now. BUT. You gotta check this out—

Paradise Metal (2026) by Π. Διον�...́σιος Ταμπάκης [P. Dionysios Tampakis]

Came out a few weeks ago now. Unlike anything else, swear—

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

Repo — Thu, 4 Jun 2026 15:40:41 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 06/04/2026 19:40

RELEASE DAY EVE: June 5th, 2026.

The Daddy-Daughter Dance! �'�🕺

I Built You A Tower (2026) by Death Cab For Cutie

vs.

Aethermead (2026) by of Montreal

As a Dad of TWO daughters, it's vitally important to NEVER play favorites. Everything needs to be carefully balanced and proportioned. Or, they will be sure to remind you of the accounting. And trust me, they never forget!

My oldest, Tilly, loves Of Montreal! My youngest, Genni, loves Death Cab For Cutie/Postal Service! Both of whom have new albums dropping tomorrow. So obviously I'm looking forward to both of these releases equally! 😇 😈

What June 5th, 2026 release(s) do YOU have your ears & heart set on when midnight strikes?! 🔭�'�

Bonus: Can anyone guess what their favorite colors are?! 🎨 �...

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Sat, 30 May 2026 03:04:39 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 05/30/2026 07:04

The rest of 'em:

Francis of Delirium, Run, Run Pure Beauty
This is what I would call a "grungegaze angelic" act, with awesome (not sexy or especially emotive, but definitely awesome) vocals by Jana Bahrich, who has lived in Luxembourg since she was 13. (Her parents were Canadian.) She's also now a solo act — Chris Hewett, originally from Seattle, is still the producer (and plays drums for the studio recordings) but is no longer an "official" band member. I can find little or nothing to criticize about this album musically; it really is fantastic in practically every respect, and frankly better than all but maybe one Weyes Blood album as well (that's who she's been most commonly compared with). All of the record's problems are extrinsic, specifically an inappropriate band name, terrible cover art, and in this case even a not-so-good album title (her 2024 debut LP's title, "Lighthouse," wasn't great either but at least it didn't sound pretentious). These are first-impression turnoffs, but hopefully not crippling ones. A record like this deserves to be huge, and she's developed enough of a following (at least in Europe) for it to not be ignored, but she'll still have to improve on the packaging to get to the next level.

Paul McCartney (the real one), The Boys of Dungeon Lane
People in the music media (or what's left of it) are already saying this is his best album in years, at least as good as (if not better than) Chaos And Creation in the Backyard, Flaming Pie, or Flowers in the Dirt, and so on. Personally, I agree.

Violet Grohl, Be Sweet To Me
I didn't know that Dave Grohl has four daughters. (Apparently one of them was "born outside of the marriage," so I'll just skip the details on that.) Violet here is the eldest, so this debut LP of hers could just be the start of an ongoing avalanche of Grohl-offspring material. Hopefully it will all sound like this too, because it's a very well-made record and she has a great voice (though I personally think it can sound uncomfortably similar to Courtney Love's, at least on some tracks). The songs are... good, none of the tracks are distinctly bad, and one or two are great, and (if you ask me) as good as anything the Foo Fighters have recorded. I was particularly impressed with how well she handles the quieter passages in tracks like "Mobile Star," the pre-release single "Applefish," and the closer (my personal favorite), "Plastic Couch." I guess Dave will now have to "up his game" in the face of new-generational female competition. Sucks to be him, eh.

Guided By Voices, Crawlspace of the Pantheon
Every once in a while, I'll listen to the latest GbV album (there have been more than 40 of them at this point) just to see if I like it as much as their mid-90s stuff, and my reaction is almost always the same: "Pretty good, actually!" and then I never listen to the album again. I know there are lots of people who are lifetime fans of this band and I salute them for their loyalty and perseverance, as these guys are practically the definition of "indie" and the refusal to sell out... but I've just never gotten into them. (Bandcamp has a nice rundown of their discography, if you haven't seen it yet.) Fans should like this LP, as it's one of their better recent ones (that I've heard). It actually gets more interesting in the middle — there's a really cool short track called "A Grand Ceremonial Jester," which is followed by a song whose title is a Lovecraft reference ("Dagon's Plunger"), so I had to mention that in case anybody thought I hadn't noticed. (Also, I've actually visited the Pantheon, and it has a full basement.)

And three more:

Wynona Bleach, Animal Style
This is a female-fronted shoegaze-pop-punk band from Belfast, so in some weeks this would be my pick-of-the-week without my even having to think about it. But there are clunkers here, like "Not Cool With It" and "Scrab," and also the Bandcamp page says it "features...songs about cats," but that page contains all the lyrics too and none of them are about cats. For their last album, Moonsoake, I commented that they sounded like what a Taylor Swift or Katy Perry pop-punk album might sound like, but this one is noisier and a bit nastier, too. They kind of remind me of The Primitives this time, but much more aggressive. Or, maybe this is what No Doubt would have sounded like if they hadn't become huge rock stars and had kept making punk records. (The album-closer, "One in a Million," sounds more like a would-be Taylor Swift pop-punk track in case you just want to skip to that.)

One the Juggler, Imperial Way
These guys made an almost-great album in 1984 (Nearly a Sin) that nobody bought (except me), a not-so-great one in 1985 (Some Strange Fashion) that wasn't released in the US at all, and since then they've made three more LPs (not including this one) that nobody even noticed (including me). I don't think anyone is going to notice this one either. I wouldn't have noticed it myself if I hadn't been contributing to this thread. The thing is, they write good songs, but the vocals just aren't up to snuff — it sounds like the singer, Sham Morris, is trying to do an early-70s David Bowie impression, or maybe an Ian Hunter impression... which would be great if he did it right, and if the producers recorded it right, but he doesn't, and they don't. He was better at it during the 80s, so I guess it's an age thing. I feel bad writing this, but it's the defining aspect of this band so I can't just ignore it.

Walras, Future Is Near
Here's an interesting one — a solo act (i.e., a guy named Denys) from Ukraine who does 80s-style AOR retro-synthwave music. It's not entirely electronic (there are occasional guitars being played), but with the exception of the leadoff title track, it's all instrumentals. So if you're having an 80's-themed dance party, just put this on, turn it up and you're all set! And be sure to buy the download, because the folks in Ukraine need (and deserve!) the money, dammit.

Next week, it's Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse, and Of Montreal, among others. It's like an Oughties' smorgasbord! 😄

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

Repo — Fri, 29 May 2026 04:08:12 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 05/29/2026 08:08

MadhattanJack wrote:

I never really tagged the Posies as a power-pop band, actually — many will disagree, but I saw them more as a 90s "indie rock" band with catchier songs than most. (They also spoiled their discography a bit with the ironically-titled Success album, and then the three later (post-2000) albums they did which were... just okay, really. I have the first two of those, but I don't listen to 'em.) Big Star were the most influential and are certainly "in the conversation," greatest-wise, but I always thought the dBs were a bit overrated, to be honest. I did like them, but not enough to buy any of their records.

The only other American power-pop acts I would put on the same level as Splitsville would be someone like Jason Falkner (who was also in Jellyfish, The Grays, and the Three O'Clock) and maybe The Shoes. (And were Sugar a power-pop band? if so, then them too, though I always considered them more punk-ish.)

Hmmm... Interesting takes! Don't know The Grays so will have to check them out!

And yeah, Sugar were a bit too punkish despite the hooks to really be considered Power Pop.

Now I might have to go on a Power Pop tear! �...

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Fri, 29 May 2026 03:53:52 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 05/29/2026 07:53

Repo wrote:

So just the Posies. And Big Star! And the dBs!

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

Repo — Fri, 29 May 2026 02:56:56 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 05/29/2026 06:56

MadhattanJack wrote:

Never mind all that though — it turns out the album I'm most keen on this week is from the not-quite-but-almost-geriatric set: It's the new comeback LP after 30 years by The Greenberry Woods, It's All Good, Sugar...

The Greenberry Woods
It's All Good, Sugar... (2026)

I don't love the album cover, but putting that aside for the moment, The Greenberry Woods were the early-90s American power-pop band started by Brandt and Matt Huseman, from Baltimore. (Where else?) They split up in 1995 after two albums, after which Brandt and Matt formed Splitsville, which I consider to be the quintessential greatest American power-pop band, like, of all time. They managed to get Splitsville back together for a reunion album last year called Mobtown, which was fantastic, but this album, released on the same label, might actually be better. (That's just a first impression, I'll have to listen to them both a couple more times and do an A/B comparison.)

Not a single track over 4 minutes, I might add! Honestly, these guys sound just as good as they did in the 90s, and I guess they've been saving up tunes for this because many of them are great, especially "The One That Makes You Happy" (track 9), which just happens to be the one that makes me happy, too.

Wow! That's high praise! Like better than Teenage Fanclub? And The Posies? And Sloan? All of whom I LOVE! If so, they go to the front of my queue immediately starting when I wake up the morning. (Right now I'm sorta sleeping! lol.)

edit: Oh! American! I told u I was still sleeping! lol. So just the Posies. And Big Star! And the dBs!

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

MadhattanJack — Fri, 29 May 2026 02:33:30 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 05/29/2026 06:33

I'm really sorry folks, I got held up on a personal matter and now it's already the 29th. And I rather wastefully spent an hour last night on a comment describing the differences between the original version of Car Seat Headrest's Teens of Denial and the new version, subtitled Joe's Story. (TL/DR version: I shouldn't have bothered. Why did I do that? No idea.) So half the albums on my list are already fully-streamable now on Bandcamp... I've got 8 albums listed, and I haven't even started formatting them, so I guess the best thing to do is to post the ol' pick-of-the-week now and see how far I get on the others over the next couple of hours — they might have to wait until tomorrow, actually.

I'd never heard of Feeble Little Horse (the album is called bitknot) — it's fine, really, but it was released on Tuesday. Earlier I mentioned the new Teary mini-album, Your Way In, but somehow that got mixed up on the Tinnitist list and it isn't being released on the 29th after all — the Bandcamp page is saying it was released all the way back on May 1st, and I just never bothered to check back on it until yesterday. I guess they wanted to get theirs in between the Bleary and Deary albums, not bring up the rear (I'd actually thought shoegaze-pop bands were better than most at coordinating these things). It's a fine little record, but it's not quite as good as I thought it would be. Also, and I'm not sure I should mention this, but their lead singer is a guy. You'd never know it just to hear him, but I guess he's one of those alto-voice fellas, he has a beard and everything. So at least that distinguishes Teary from Bleary and Deary (both of whom have female lead singers). For some odd reason I'm vaguely disappointed by this.

Never mind all that though — it turns out the album I'm most keen on this week is from the not-quite-but-almost-geriatric set: It's the new comeback LP after 30 years by The Greenberry Woods, It's All Good, Sugar...

The Greenberry Woods
It's All Good, Sugar... (2026)

I don't love the album cover, but putting that aside for the moment, The Greenberry Woods were the early-90s American power-pop band started by Brandt and Matt Huseman, from Baltimore. (Where else?) They split up in 1995 after two albums, after which Brandt and Matt formed Splitsville, which I consider to be the quintessential greatest American power-pop band, like, of all time. They managed to get Splitsville back together for a reunion album last year called Mobtown, which was fantastic, but this album, released on the same label, might actually be better. (That's just a first impression, I'll have to listen to them both a couple more times and do an A/B comparison.)

Not a single track over 4 minutes, I might add! Honestly, these guys sound just as good as they did in the 90s, and I guess they've been saving up tunes for this because many of them are great, especially "The One That Makes You Happy" (track 9), which just happens to be the one that makes me happy, too.

Re: Release Day Eve: Anyone got something they're geeked about?! 🔭�'�

Repo — Thu, 28 May 2026 20:13:41 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 05/29/2026 00:13

RELEASE DAY EVE: May 29th, 2026.

Choices! Choices! Choices! 🫠 🫠 🫠

Inferno (2026) by Boards Of Canada

Honestly, tomorrow is just positively STACKED with stuff I want to check out. Kurt Vile! Iceage! Turnover! Greg Mendez! And even a band that I think is just slightly adjacent to MJ-core - Feeble Little Horse! But the impending release that has me positively wobbly-kneed is Board of Canada's Inferno. They've only teased one track so far -"Prophecy at 1420 MHz", but it SLAYS and has me SLAVERING for more. 🫠

What May 29th, 2026 release(s) do YOU have your ears & heart set on when midnight strikes?! 🔭�'�